The current situation is more controlled than it was a while agoJakarta (ANTARA) - The decline in the COVID-19 positivity rate to 4.3 percent in the capital over the past week signifies infections are already under control, the Jakarta Health Office has said.
"The current situation is more controlled than it was a while ago. We will maintain this (improvement)," head of disease prevention and control at the Jakarta Health Office, Dwi Oktavia, informed here on Friday.
The standard prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) requires COVID-19 positive cases to be no more than five percent.
The percentage of positive cases this week was obtained from Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) swab tests of 80,358 people, conducted as of September 2, 2021, Oktavia said.
The number of people who underwent PCR tests this week also exceeded Jakarta's weekly testing target of 10,645 people, she added.
That way, although COVID-19 cases in Jakarta have decreased, testing is still relatively high, which is up to eight times the WHO target, she noted.
Although the cases in the capital are under control, the public must not to be euphoric or forget about the pandemic situation, she cautioned.
COVID-19 vaccination only reduces the harsh impact of the infection, she said. There is still a possibility of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 if people are not strict about practicing health protocols in daily life, she added.
Oktavia called on the public and all agencies to continue to implement the health protocols, such as maintaining distance, wearing masks, reducing mobility, washing hands, and avoiding crowds.
"This is witnessed from the positive cases that are still fluctuating and it requires joint efforts to break the chain of transmission," she stressed.
Meanwhile, the total PCR tests in Jakarta have now reached 545,121 per million population, while the total population of Jakarta as of 2020 is pegged at 10.6 million, she informed.
The number of active cases in Jakarta has dropped by 417 cases, which means there are still 6,244 people who are undergoing treatment or isolation, she added.
Meanwhile, the total number of confirmed cases in Jakarta to date is 851,686, Oktavia said.
The positive antigen test results in Jakarta were not included in the total positive cases because all of them are reconfirmed with PCR, she added.
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Translator: Dewa, Ricky, Kenzu T
Editor: Sri Haryati
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